This catalouge is dedicated those who helped and supported us in the creation of the exhibition.

Thanks to family, friends, supporters on IndieGoGo, Sophia Rose Nicholson for our wonderful logo,

Lisa Fleming for the donation of beverages, and many others!

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Table of Contents

An Introduction to Media Medicum

Work by PhotographersIn Order of Presentation

Samantha Calvert

Malena Persson

Rebecca Sandelin

Salka ArnarsdÓttir

Katie Blair Matthews

An Introduction toMedia Medicum

By Rebecca Sandelin, Curator for Media Medicum

Looking at society, culture and science today you often forget, while rushing through your daily life, the con ditions which made it possible. When tracing the history of contemporary Western civilisation, looking back at what was before allows us to peek through the hazy shade of a thin curtain into what is now and what is to come. Looking back to the history of Western culture you inevitably arrive at the period of Industrialisa-tion during the 19th century. The age of industrial madness, which gripped most of the Northern hemisphere, is marked by creative innovations in the arts, mechanical wonders in engineering and pioneering inventions in science. While these lasting markers of humankind are celebrated through their contemporary uses, the quirks, oddities and failures remain more hidden, yet similarly vital to the legacy and impact of the era. The works ex-hibited as part of Media Medicum explore a variety of known innovations and hidden mysteries.

When the group initially began planning their work a variety of themes and subject matters arose. Issues such as time, history, death or mortality, science and society were mentioned and debated. In the end the group sought to combine their interests and referred to history in order to find a point of origin and temporal context to reference in their work and eventual exhibition. The group unanimously arrived at the 19th century as the launch point and framework due to a variety of contributing reasons.

One such reason is the birth and early development of photographic practices and techniques occurring throughout the century. Pioneers such as Joseph Nicéphone Niépce, Jaques Derrida, Henry Fox Talbot and George Eastman contributed to the initial and lasting flourish of photography. The Lumière Brothers and Ea-dweard Muybridge likewise contributed to the success of the mechanically- and chemically -produced image. This rich and vibrant history of the beginnings of photography marks the 19th century as historically significant in terms of the groups work. Similarly vital is the prevalence of medicinal innovations and inventions that oc-curred in to the atmosphere of the era. Inventions such as the electromagnet (William Sturgeon), the stethoscope (René Laënnec), various anesthesias (including Dr William Morton and James Young Simpson), the hypodermic syringe (Alexander Wood) and the use of X-ray cinematography (John McIntyre) are just a few examples. Prac-tices in visualising and documenting diseases and illnesses developed hand-in-hand with the understanding of basic healthcare and various treatments. The birth of scientific psychology and medical psychiatry signalled the beginning of analysing and treating the internal, mental health of society’s members.

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A third source of inspiration for the exhibition’s theme lay in the group’s geographical location at the time of conception and planning. The city of Edinburgh, Scotland has a long and vibrant tradition and heritage in terms of both medicine and photography. Scottish photographers during the 19th-century were among the first to actively use photographic techniques for both commercial and artistic means. Due to patenting errors, early Scottish photography aided the establishment of photography as a documentary instrument and a tool for artistic expression and exploration. The New Town part of Edinburgh was the centre of the city’s artistic community and the location for several of the earliest photographic studios used by professional and amateur photographers. While Glasgow was the centre for more traditional art forms towards the later end of the century, Edinburgh still remained as an important part of the Scottish art community during the 19th-century. In terms of medicine, Edinburgh was, and is still today, an epicentre for the global medical and medicinal community. Several of the city’s buildings were built with the intent purpose of serving the medical community as surgeons and physicians offices, operation theatres, morgues and much more. University of Edinburgh, one of Europe’s oldest univer-sities, has a long tradition and a lasting impact on the status of the medical sciences in the United Kingdom, Europe and the entire world. The history of medical and medicinal developments that occurred in Edinburgh varies from developments in scientific and plastic surgery as well as anaesthesia’s to anatomy, psychology and forensics. Further proof of the city’s immense medicinal history can be found in the men and women in Edin-burgh who developed various phenomena, including Sir James Young Simpson (who pioneered the usage of chloroform as a surgical anaesthesia) and Sir Alexander Fleming (who developed early penicillin) in addition to many others. These many traditions continued well into the 20th century and beyond.

A shared tradition unfolds in front of us when we look at the distinct histories of photography and med-icine during the 19th century. Photography in the 19th century emerged into an atmosphere of curiosity and necessity. Medical communities were quick and enthusiastic in their employment of photographic practices and techniques for constructing visual imagery that could assist in diagnosing, treating and controlling the variety of maladies and ailments that were plaguing the 19th century patient. Cameras were explored as instruments capable of producing objective knowledge and scientific evidence. Thus photography fit into the increasingly common evaluation, appreciation and importance of health care and management of the continued physical and mental wellbeing of society’s members through medical diagnostics and treatments. It is in this context that 19th century Scottish photographers David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson are credited as creating early clinical portraits in the mid-1800’s and that medical photography and its various specialized applications were contin-ually developed. Today we experience this heritage through specialized photographic practices employed in various medicinal contexts, including clinical, dental and retinal photography.

It is from this varied pool of inspiration that the members of Panopticon took it upon themselves to continue and deepen their research. The ultimate goal was to choose a particular theme and subject matter to explore and re-interpret into a contemporary context. These subject matters vary from medical illustrations of medical electricity (Salka ArnarsdottÍr), to treatments of tuberculosis (Samantha Calvert), X-ray imagery and cinematography (Katie Blair Matthews), anorexia nervosa (Malena Persson) and 19th century art and medical

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illustrations (Rebecca Sandelin). Each work explores and interprets different facets of the exhibitions overall theme, and re-interprets the original material depending on what issues and questions were found interesting and important by the photographer. Media Medicum presents these projects in relation to one another and to the general theme of re-interpreting 19th-century medicinal phenomena.

This short essay is just the introduction to the exhibition itself. As an ending to this introduction it would be worthwhile expanding on the name Media Medicum and its origins. The title is an amalgam of a few terms, one being materia medica, the Latin medical term for a body of collected knowledge of the therapeutic proper-ties of medicines. Another is materia photographica, a term traced by the group to Clement J. Leaper’s treatise on photographic materials, substances, techniques and practices from the late 19th-century. Media was used in knowledge of its original Latin meaning (‘something lying in a middle or intermediate position’) as well as its modern and contemporary meaning (‘a means of effecting or conveying something’). Thus Media Medicum can be interpreted to mean a method of conveying re-interpretations of medicinal phenomena that exists in a middle temporal context between what was and what is to be. Much like the projects presented within, the exhi-bition itself re-interprets 19th century medicinal phenomena as a way of looking at the past to gain knowledge and understanding of our current times and of our possible future.

The rest of the pages within this catalogue are dedicated to the images and words of each project present-ed in Media Medicum. Like each individual photographer creating the work, each individual work has its own area of interest, style and personality that is influenced by the combination of research, inspiration, interpreta-tion and visual engagement. Yet combined with each other the works afford us with intriguing insights into the variation of medicinal phenomena that occurred throughout the 19-century and how these phenomena could be understand in both historical and contemporary contexts.

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Samantha Calvert

The Romantic Disease

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In order to reinterpret 19th century medicine, The Romantic Disease series explores the theories of open-air treatment and the sanatorium cure for recovering Tuberculosis patients in that particular era.

This series aims to reframe the history of the past into a modern context by providing an under-standing of how Tuberculosis patients in the 19th century began their treatment in a sanatorium and progressively became stronger because of the effects of the fresh air and direct sunlight as a cure.

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most deadly infectious diseases in the world. It is a bacterial infection spread by inhaling tiny droplets from coughs or sneezes of an infected person. It mainly affects the lungs, however it can affect any part of the body such as the glands, bones and nervous system. In the 19th century, TB was often referred to as “the romantic disease”. Many artists and writers became visible symbols of TB whilst suffering its effects. This was reflected in some well-known novels and plays where love struck heroes and heroines wasted away in a glamorous and moving way just as they found happi-ness (for example as seen in Verdi’s opera La Traviata).

Tuberculosis was primarily a disease of the city, where crowded and often filthy living conditions provided an ideal environment for the spread of the disease. In the 19th century there was no effective cure in terms of vaccines or drugs; however it was thought that the only hope for recovery for TB suffer-ers was the sanatorium cure. This meant that patients would be sent to a remote sanatorium (a medical facility for long-term illness, normally associated with TB) for many months or even years, where they would be under strict supervision of doctors. These sanatoriums were usually located in non-urban, tree-lined neighborhoods where the air quality was better than inner cities. Patients would have to follow a rigorous routine of a healthy diet, outdoor exercise and were exposed to continuous amounts of fresh air and direct sunlight. At first, they would spend extended periods taking bed rest outside in the open-air sanatorium verandas until they became gradually stronger to walk about and exercise within the grounds of the facility where they would still be able to take in the fresh air. This regimen offered the best chance for the patients to get rid of the infection in their lungs and was the first major advancement in the treat-ment of the disease.

Today incidence rates of TB in Scotland are generally stable & low because of available vaccina-tions. However, in other parts of the world, the rates for the disease are continuously rising. Contributing factors of this cause include people who have severely compromised immune systems (such as HIV/Aids) that allow the TB bacteria to easily infect them. In addition, the amount of people migrating from coun-try to country has increased significantly over the years. This results in the bacteria, such as TB, to be carried around with them.

Samantha Calvert is a Scottish photographer who has added interests in other media such as web, graphic and sound design. As a keen traveller, Samantha likes to combine her desire for seeing the world with her passion for photography, creating images as a means to document the world around her.

More of Samantha’s work can be viewed at: www.samanthacalvertphotography.co.uk

Contact:samanthacalvertphotos@live.co.uk

Malena Persson

She is Never Tired; Anorexia Nervosa in the 19th Century

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Despite the view of Anorexia as a modern disease, often thought to be caused by our times fixation with beauty and weight, the term was actually coined in the 19th Century. Two physicians almost simultaneously used it to describe their patients. One of them was Briton William Withey Gull. In 1873 Gull published a paper where he talked about his patients Miss A, B and C, and he claimed that it was the mental state of the women that prominently destroyed their appetite. Despite this commentary the psychologists of the 19th Century paid no interest in Anorexia Nervosa. The disease was to a start treated as a physiological illness. But when it was discovered that the underlying cause was entirely psychological Gull stated in his paper that ‘the treatment required is obviously that which is fitted for persons of un-sound mind’ (1873).

She is Never Tired is a body of work that uses Gull’s paper on Anorexia Nervosa as a base on which the photographer’s own interpretations then rest upon. The project looks at how the symptoms of the disease were characterized at the time, as well as what remedies were used. By appropriating actual 19th century medical archive images and visually juxtapose these against a contemporary imagery; the notion of the sickness of the mind, along with the old and modern Institution, is explored. Quotes about Miss A, B and C are incorporated into the images to create an insight in what it is like to suffer from Anorexia Nervosa. At the same time the juxtaposed images in each triptych resembles the state of mind versus the medical Institution. Each slide of the triptych also signifies the emaciated body of an anorexic. She is Never Tired is a visual journey into the medical history of Anorexia Nervosa as well as the mind of the anorexic.

Malena Persson is a photographer originally from Sweden but has lived in Edinburgh since 2003. Malena usually works for NGOs in Scotland and has photographed for Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

Contact: malena.photography@mail.com

Website: www.malenapersson.com

Rebecca Sandelin

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Illustrated Bodies

Illustrated Bodies explores the art and practice of 19th century medical illustrations and portrait paintings in creating contrasting, yet simultaneously occurring, representations of the human body. The photographer’s interest originates in exploring the intriguing problematics of objectively representing the ailments of human physicality and subjectively portraying ideal and perfect physical bodies.

This project in particular has two major sources of inspiration and information, of which 19th century medical illustrations is perhaps the most important one. While the art of medical illustrations was a long tradition stemming from far back in history, it flourished during the 1800s in an environment of scientific curiosity and medical necessity. Medical illustrations were achieved through collaborative work and were produced by doctors, surgeons, artists and craftsmen. By researching medical illustrations and descriptions of illnesses and diseases commonly occurring during the 1800s (such as syphilis, chol-era, typhus, smallpox and yellow fever) that had external visual manifestations and symptoms, the pho-tographer gained an understanding of how these affections affected multiple areas. The 19th century was certainly a century of innovation in terms of health care too, in addition to everything else.

The second part the work finds its basis in the art of 19th century portrait painting. Building on the practices and techniques of preceding painters, masters of the 1800 such as Henri Toulouse-Lautreu, Edgar Degas, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, John Singer Sargent and William McTaggart among others, creat-ed evocative paintings of a variety of sitters from different spectrums of society. Portrait painting and the visual representation of a human subject varied in narratives and in aesthetic choices, decisions and approaches. Painting genres such as Symbolism, Romanticism, Impressionism, Realism and Academic Portraiture became the trademarks of 19th century portrait painting. Still today we see the language and the influences of these paintings in modern portraiture, their mark having remained throughout the con-secutive centuries.

In Illustrated Bodies, the photographer attempts to combine, re-interpret and challenge the aesthetic visuals and the grand narratives presented by these two distinct visual mediums. The 19th century was the dawn of a new age and saw the initial invention and development of photography as an instrument of documentation as well as a tool for artistic pursuits in expression and exploration. The work consists of photographic adaptions of medical illustrations and portrait paintings from the era of industrialisation that occurred during the 19th century in order to explore the intersection of art and science, photography, painting, illustrative practices and visual representations of narrative, identity and the physical being. By using contemporary photographic methods of representation Illustrated Bodies explores the history and tradition of photographic practices within art and science.

Rebecca Sandelin is a young photographer heralding from Finland. Inspired by a wide variety of matters, she seeks out to explore and photograph realities, fictions, stories, histories and experiences. She considers herself more of an image-maker than a photographer or artist and enjoys creating work that is playful and serious, witty and severe. The written text and spoken word are of equal importance to her work and she can often be found either photographing the most mundane objects or scribbling far too long sentences. Rebecca believes there is always stories to be found, things to be learned, images to be seen and words to be written and read.

For more of Rebecca’s work look to her website at: rebeccasandelin.com

Contact Rebecca at:rebecca@rebeccasandelin.com

Salka ArnarsdÓttir

Faradisation

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Medical experiments using electricity were being done before the 19th century. In 1771 Luigi Gal-vani discovered animal electricity by chance, and this led to the invention of the galvanic current, which grew in popularity in medical experiments after that. Subsequent discoveries in electromagnetism led to Michael Faraday inventing an induction coil. This combined with a repeater meant that an interrupted or alternation current could be created, and that is what the faradic current is. The application of this kind of current is called faradisation and is the basis for the work. Faradisation aims to show how versatile electricity really was for medicine.

Faradisation was very versatile, and used in many different ways in medicine. It was used as a form of treatment, as diagnosis and to better understand the human body and physiology. The projects images deal with all of these fields of use.

Guillaume Duchenne du Boulogne used what he called localised faradisation to determine the individual functions of muscles. One of his famous experiments involved making his test subject express different kinds of facial expressions by making different muscles in his face contract. Using this method the individual functions of the muscles in the arm could also be determined. In image ‘Fig. 1’ the photographer discusses the importance of Duchenne du Boulogne’s experiments in gaining extensive knowledge of the arms musculature and anatomy.

Another use for localised faradisation was the diagnosis of certain kinds of paralyses, among other things. By applying localised faradisation to certain muscles you could determine if they were functioning properly or not, and could then move on to treat them correctly. Image ‘Fig. 3’ shows this by having two legs side by side, where one is reacting normally and the other is not.

In a scientific paper written by Samuel Sloan, M.D, consulting physician at the Samaritan Hospi-tal for Diseases of Women in Glasgow at the end of the 19th century, he talks about his success in treat-ing patients with chronic insomnia using faradisation applied to the head. This paper functions as the basis for ‘Fig. 2’, as the photographer found it was exemplary of a treatment faradisation was used for. The image represents how Sloan’s directions were applied for the treatment.

The images presented in Faradisation replicate traditional medical illustrations. However, the photographer has attempted to bring them into a contemporary context by using modern equivalent of the electrodes used in the 19th century for the treatments etc. By including the musucle structure of the arm, now familar the contemporary world, the work shows how important faradisation has been for the advancecment in anatomy.

Salka ArnarsdÓttir is a photographer from Finland who is interested in many different kinds of photography, with personal projects mostly to do with landscape and portraiture. Interests outside of photography include jewelry making and languages. Travel and different cultures are a big interest for Salka, and she aims to travel the world and photograph its sights and people.

Contact:salka@sandelinhome.com

Katie Blair Matthews

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Specimens

Specimens has two influences to its construction. The first being the discovery of the X-ray in the 19th century and its medical use, and the second being the relationship between science, medicine and art.

The initial studies of X-rays in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen inspired a number of Glaswegian med-ics to consider the technical use of X-rays in medicine. A few years after the discovery, the world’s first radiology unit was set up within Glasgow’s Royal Infirmary with the help of Glaswegian surgeon, John Macintyre. Macintyre is credited as being one of the first in the UK to work with X-rays in medicine as well as being the first to create an X-ray cinematograph which shows the movement of a frog’s legs. The moving film stills in Macintyre’s short film are reminiscent of the modern day CT scan which creates multiple still images in its scanning process.

John Macintyre as well as numerous other colleagues saw the X-ray as ‘the new photography’. The X-ray machine was a perfect tool for satisfying the 19th century obsession for classification and surveil-lance which was rigorously explored using photography. The photogram, just like the X-ray was seen as an entirely objective way of recording objects. The 19th century version of a photogram, a Sun picture, was largely used to document botanical specimens. Although today many would consider these photo-graphs as ‘art’, 19th century photographers and scientists were divided on whether photography could be considered as an art form.

The photograms in this series are created by placing organic objects at varying heights above light sensitive paper and then exposing the paper to artificial light for different periods of time. The placement of the organic objects creates an artistic representation of the slices of a human head during a CT scan therefore expressing the relationship between medicine and art through photographic documentation.

Katie Blair MatthewsKatie is a freelance photographer from Scotland who practices documentary and art photography, often combining both within the same genre. She is also interested in photographic history as well as teaching photographic practice and history.

Contact; katieblairmatthewsphotography@gmail.com

For more of Katie’s work;http://katieblairmatthews.format.com/

Featuring

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Samantha Calverth

Malena Perssonh

Rebecca Sandelinh

Salka ArnarsdÓttirh

Katie Blair Matthewsh